Israeli Attack Kills Dozens Of People In Gaza Strip When New Armistice Negotiations Begin

Israeli attacks destroyed settlements in the Gaza Strip (Instagram/@unicef).

JAKARTA - An Israeli military attack killed 12 people in a house in Gaza City on Saturday, January 4, 2025, early in the morning local time.

Palestinian medics reported the death toll from the attack on Gaza is now 65 people over the past day, as mediators launched a new ceasefire in Qatar.

Residents and medics said at least 14 people were in the Al-Ghoula family home when the attack occurred in the early hours of the morning, which destroyed the building.

People combed through the rubble to search for possible survivors trapped under the rubble. Medics said several children were among those killed.

Several fires and trails of smoke continued to billow from the burning furniture in the rubble hours after the attack.

"At around 2 am, we were awakened by the sound of a big explosion." said Ahmed Ayyan, a neighbor of Al-Ghoula's family, adding that 14 or 15 people had lived in the house.

"Most of them are women and children, they are all civilians, no one there is firing missiles, or from the resistance," Ayyan told Reuters.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident. In a statement on Saturday that its troops had resumed their operations this week in Beit Hanoun City, on the northern edge of the enclave, where the army had been operating for three months and had destroyed a military complex that had been used by Hamas.

In Bali, Israeli airstrikes killed three Palestinians. Earlier, another Israeli air strike killed three people in a car east of the central city of Deir Al-Balah.

Saturday's deaths left the death toll at 65 since Friday, January 3, 2025.

Meanwhile, an increase in Israeli operations and the number of Palestinians killed in recent days comes amid a renewed push to reach a ceasefire in a war that has lasted for 15 months and repatriated Israeli hostages before the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, took office on January 20.

Israeli mediators were sent to continue talks in Doha brokered by Qatar and Egypt mediators, and the administration of US President Joe Biden, who helped mediate the talks, urging Hamas on Friday to agree to the deal.

Hamas said it was committed to reaching an agreement, but it was not clear how close the two sides were.

Then on Saturday, an Israeli armed group released a video showing an Israeli woman hostage - identified by Israeli media as an army - urging Israel to do more to secure the release of the hostages.

He said his life and other prisoners were in danger due to Israel's ongoing military action in Gaza.

There has been no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which previously called such a video a "psychological war" by Hamas.

Israel launched its attack on Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, as militants stormed the border community from Gaza, killing about 1,200 people and holding about 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Israel's military campaign, with the aim of being declared to eradicate Hamas, has razed much of the region, expelled most people from their homes, and killed 45,717 Palestinians.